Satro

COMPANY REPORT Cable TV Operator SATRO, Slovakia
该独家报道由高级编辑所作

Customer • Special offer for using multiple TVs

Service at
• Utilizes Hybrid Fiber Networks
• Has 10-15% of the Slovakian market
• 50% of new customers opt for
Multiroom with SmartWi

Cable TV
Provider
SATRO

■ Customers can find SATRO’s
Customer Center in this building in
central Bratislava.

TELE-satellite Magazine
Business Voucher
www.TELE-satellite.info/11/11/satro
Direct Contact to Sales Manager

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COMPANY REPORT Cable TV Operator SATRO, Slovakia

"Half of our new customers
choose the Multiroom
solution”
ë Bratislava

■ Martin Kopca is cable
operator SATRO’s
Executive Director. Thanks
to SmartWi’s card sharing
system, his company can
offer Multiroom solutions
to its customers.
Back in the old days when TV sig-
nals were still transmitted in ana-
log mode, cable TV customers could
simply use splitters to connect mul-
tiple TVs. For example, in addition to
the main TV in the living room, they
could add another TV in the bedroom
or a third in the kid’s room.

With the advent of digital tech-
nology, this simple solution was no
longer possible. If a cable customer
wants to add a second TV, the logic
with almost every cable TV provid-
er was that they should take out a
second cable TV subscription. Some
cable operators offer a discount for
adding additional TVs. But there’s a
problem with this: what if the cus-
tomer doesn’t use this second dis-
counted subscription himself and in-
stead passes it on to someone else
so that they can split the savings be-
tween them?

For this reason, many cable TV pro-
viders don’t even offer a discounted
subscription rate for a second or
third connection. So when one cable
TV provider states that half of their
new customers opt for a Multiroom
solution – for reception on multiple
TVs – then this statement was so
puzzling and unusual that TELE-sat-
ellite decided to find out the reason
for this. Why at one cable operator
would half of the customers want

1

something that isn’t even available to connect more than four TVs, red of exporting his expertise. “For many ter Antenna TV) in various apart-
with most of the other cable opera- flags go up by us.” The reason is not years our founder was busy setting ment buildings. The newly founded
tors? What is this one cable TV pro- so much that SATRO fears a custom- up TV transmission networks in Af- company expanded very quickly;
■ Marek Michalik is
responsible for SATRO’s vider doing differently than all the er is doing something they shouldn’t rican countries”, remembers Marek in 1992 it became a real firm that
marketing. Here he’s other cable operators in the world? be doing (that is to say, letting next Michalik regarding the company’s Frantisek Kaduch named SATRO (an
showing us SATRO’s new
logo. door neighbors connect to his cable history. abbreviation of Satelitny Rozvod or
In an industrial zone in Bratislava TV service), but rather if there are Satellite Network). It all became
right next to Highway D2 towards so many rooms in an apartment or In 1986, still in those communist very serious in this same year: the
house, the SATRO Multiroom solu- days, Slovakian state television be- city of Bratislava gave out exclusive
tion might not be able to do its job. gan making plans to distribute the licenses for specific sections of the
“Our technicians will check it out on increasing number of available TV city; SATRO acquired the license
location and if the situation is un- channels to apartment houses via for the Devinska Nova Ves district.
derstandable, we simply install more cable TV systems. Frantisek Kaduch SATRO was given the rights to in-
than one Multiroom solution.” was occupied with this subject and, stall cable TV systems in the homes
thanks to his foreign experience, in this district. After three years, all
Now we want to know what this recognized the enormous potential 6000 homes in this district had been
Multiroom solution is all about. “It’s that existed here for the future. His wired by SATRO.
very simple: we use SmartWi’s card chance came in 1989 when commu-
sharing system; it’s the ideal solu- nism died in Slovakia: he became There’s an even more important
tion for us!” says Martin Kopca and self-employed and installed the first reason why cable TV was so well
then explains, “The SmartWi system cable networks (SMATV – Small Mas- received: the people finally wanted
is based on the transmission of card
information in the 860 MHz range.
This frequency range can be freely
used as long as the power output
doesn’t exceed a certain limit.”
Brno and across from the
Galéria Shopping Center The effect is that the output signal
can be found cable TV is strong enough to reach multiple
operator SATRO’s ad- receivers in a normal apartment but
ministration building. Martin Kopca, too weak to be used by anyone in a
SATRO’s Executive Director, works neighboring apartment. “The Smart-
here and he’s a very enthusiastic Wi system guarantees that not one
engineer. The statement that half of of our cable customers can pass our
SATRO’s new customers choose the signal along to a friend or relative or
Multiroom solution comes from him; simply resell it”, says Martin Kopca
it allows customers to watch SATRO’s explaining that they chose this sys-
cable TV programming individually tem because only legitimate custom-
on up to four TVs. “Of course, you ers can actually use the card signal.
could connect up to eight TVs with
our Multiroom system”, reveals Mar- How did SATRO even figure out
tin Kopca, “but if someone wants that SmartWi was the 100% solution
■ SATRO’s cable network to their problem? Let’s find out more
in Slovakia. SATRO has an
especially strong presence about SATRO. “SATRO was founded
in the cities of Bratislava, by Frantisek Kaduch who still today
Nitra, Topoľčany, Myjava holds an 85% share in the company.
and Galanta. In Galanta,
SATRO has already installed The remaining 15% share is owned
an HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) by his son and successor”, explains
system, that is, a system Marek Michalik, responsible for
SATRO’s marketing.

When Slovakia was still a commu-
nist country, Frantisek Kaduch was
working for state-run television in
the transmission technology section.
He took care of the broadcaster net-
work and back then had the privilege

■ In TELE-satellite’s
04-05/2011 issue can be
that uses optical cable for its main distribution found our test report on
network and normal coax cable for connecting SmartWi’s card sharing
to customers. SATRO supplies roughly 40,000 system. The report can
households with TV service, of that 25,000 are be read online here:
still in analog and 15,000 are in digital. Of the
digital customers, 8000 have Internet service
through SATRO’s cable in addition to their TV www.TELE-satellite.com/
service and 2000 only subscribe to Internet TELE-satellite-1105/eng/smartwi.pdf
service.

1 173

■ This is Bratislava’s TV
tower that was erected
in 1975. At the foot of the
tower is a restaurant. The
tower is located at the
edge of Bratislava on the
Kamzik hill that is 435.5
meters above sea level. The
tower itself is 200 meters
high with all the transmitter
electronics located at the
170-meter level. Other
providers besides SATRO
use this tower to transmit
their services which
include local terrestrial TV
programming and mobile
telephone services.

to embrace their freedom and
watch all those new satellite
TV channels. “Above all it was
the private TV channels from
Germany that were back then
a strong argument for the peo-
ple to want cable TV”, explains
Martin Kopca from the past.
But this reason has largely
fallen to the wayside thanks to
the increasingly large number
of local TV channels that have
appeared in their own national
language.

Back then SATRO was obvi-
ously not the only company that
installed and operated cable

1

TV. SATRO reached a market share quencies are reserved country-wide of view, the implementation of MVDS
of 10-15% in the year 2000 and it’s for other services”, he explains, “LTE has another significant advantage: ■ Our visit to the tower came at just the right
time: a new directional transmitter antenna
still about the same today.” will be taking over these frequen- “We use it to offer high-speed In- was being installed.
cies.” ternet!” For this service the cable
The market has stabilized but it has customer gets a reception system
certainly not come to a halt. “We’re So, SATRO inaugurated the MVDS with a transceiver - a two-way sys-
always upgrading our system”, ex- system in 2009. This system oper- tem. “We offer real symmetry here,
plains Martin Kopca who as an avid ates in the 11.7 to 12.3 GHz range in other words, upload and download
engineer plays an important role in – yes, this is precisely within the Ku- speeds are identical with us.” For
the further development of SATRO’s band. “The advantage is the larger the Internet SATRO sees long-term
implemented technologies. “In the bandwidth. We divided this range interest for those customers outside
beginning, everything, of course, into two bands; this resulted in 38 of the city, beyond the reach of the
was analog”, he says, “Back then we streaming 8 MHz channels”, details hard-wired cable network. “Cable
were able to carry 30 to 40 TV chan- Martin Kopca”, for each stream we distribution within the city is opti-
nels.” Since the laying of cable only can provide 10-12 SD channels for mal”, explains Martin Kopca, “but in
made sense economically within the our customers.” He gives us a sur- the areas surrounding the city where
city, a new technology came into use prising explanation for the use of installing cable is not economically
in 1998: MMDS. SATRO transmitted QAM64: “This modulation doesn’t of- practical, MVDS technology is the
signals that could be received by fer error correction but transmitter perfect solution.”
customers outside of the city with a and receiver are in line of sight of
terrestrial dish antenna. “We were each other anyway and not relatively After seeing what the future holds,
only licensed to use the MMDS fre- far apart either. The big advantage it’s time to get back to the Multiroom
quencies up until 2011. The system with QAM64 is that with it we can solution. “When we switched over to
will be turned off because the fre- completely cover the transponder digital technology, many of our older
stream of a satellite. One DVB-S customers were hesitant; we couldn’t
satellite channel at 38 Mbit/s corre- offer them a solution on how to con-
sponds to exactly one QAM64 chan- nect two or more TVs”, says Martin
nel.” Kopca. He took a look at the various
solutions that were available. “One
Looking at it from a strategic point manufacturer, for example, offered

■ When the weather is nice Rudolf Pobis enjoys the exclusive view you get from
Bratislava’s tower. The Danube is in the background.

1 177

■ These are modulators for SATRO’s MVDS
system in the TV tower. Broadcast Technician
Rudolf Pobis regularly keeps an eye on the
settings.
He explains to us, “We transmit with three
segment antennas at about 50W each. This
provides reliable reception to a range of
about 25 km in the direction of each segment
antenna.” This is enough to reliably cover the
city of Bratislava.

1

moving the SmartWi box also didn’t We will then be able to offer this sys-
help”, reveals Martin Kopca from ex- tem to those customers with larger
perience, “But SmartWi found a rem- homes or multi-story homes.”
edy: the new generation of SmartWi
now at the start scans five different As you have just seen, the Smart-
frequencies and selects the one fre- Wi card sharing system, that TELE-
quency that has no interference.” satellite has already written about as
a system for private end-users, can
This trick also eliminates those rare do much more: it provides cable TV
cases where there were still sources operators with the perfect opportu-
of interference. “We are very sat- nity to satisfy a customer’s need to
isfied with SmartWi since its soft- connect more than one TV. Cable TV
ware is always being optimized and provider SATRO clearly recognized
consistently improved”, says Martin this option and has implemented this
Kopca and then continues, “even in system to the satisfaction of many
those cases where the SmartWi’s of its customers. The fact that half
output power is too low (and can’t of their new customers opt for this
be increased), SmartWi has found system, is an indisputable argument
a solution that they are working on. in favor of the SmartWi system.

■ A look down from the TV tower: the two uplink dishes for Slovakian DTH provider
Skylink are seen in the forest clearing. They are a strong competitor to SATRO’s TV “Back then we didn’t have a Multi- can only shake his head: “The system
programming packages. room solution and many custom- is perfect and 95% of the time there
ers were reluctant to switch over to are no limitations with the instal-
a receiver with two tuners but on the can only be used inside the home of digital. They insisted on sticking with lation.” SmartWi reaches its limits
one hand the box would get too hot the cable customer. Since the original an analog signal.” Since SATRO be- when the customer’s apartment or
during operation while on the other card is not manipulated by SmartWi, gan offering their Multiroom solution, house is too large. “Its range is lim-
there were problems with remotely as might be with other solutions, all that reluctance completely changed: ited since we simply aren’t allowed to
controlling the box or connecting to of the concerns that hackers might “Every other customer opts for the transmit any stronger in the 860 MHz
TVs in other rooms.” be able to penetrate the system fade Multiroom solution”, says Martin Kop- range.” Then there are those cas-
away. Martin Kopca can’t figure out ca with a smile on his face. SATRO es where other transmitters in the
He squashed every idea until he why other cable system operators makes it very easy for a customer home can create interference. “Quite
stumbled on to the SmartWi card haven’t also implemented this sys- to decide on the Multiroom solution. often it’s a DECT telephone or a cus-
sharing system. “All of a sudden we tem. “Demand is enormous because “Our basic package costs 39 Euros a tomer’s WiFi router that can create
had the solution to all of our prob- today’s customers have more than month and to add a Multiroom sys- interference.” Martin Kopca suggests
lems!” says Martin Kopca who today one TV and they want to be able to tem – a SmartWi box and the second that in these cases to try and move
is still thrilled since SmartWi has watch all of their TV channels on ev- programming package – it costs just the SmartWi box to a different loca-
everything that the other solutions ery TV.” 2 Euros more a month, 1 Euro for the tion. “In most cases, this solves the
didn’t have. It is manufacturer-inde- SmartWi box and 1 Euro for the pro- problem very simply.” ■ This is an exampel
pendent for the boxes that are used When SATRO switched over to digi- gramming package.” of a transceiver unit
(“We use chip-pairing”, explains tal technology, many of their exist- The first generation of SmartWi for SATRO's Internet
Service
Martin Kopca) and guarantees at the ing customers were hesitant to make Is there anything to criticize with was restricted to operating on one
same time that the reception cards the change from analog to digital. the SmartWi system? Martin Kopca specific frequency. “In certain cases

1 181

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